Potomanto

The strength of a great filmmaker lies in his or her ability to bring the audience back time after time regardless of cast, story or genre and the same can be said about Shirley Frimpong-Manso. For most of us, the name Shirley Frimpong-Manso is immediately associated with the sexy sassy wahala that was “The Adams Apples Series“. The glitz, the glam, the color, the drama, the romance.

In contrast, Potomanto neither presents the glitz, nor the glam. Hardly any romance and not much drama. In Potomanto, Shirley Frimpong takes on a more serious issue. The tone of the movie is drastically different from the Adams Apples series but not much different from Checkmate or some of her earlier works. Potomanto is a less shiny movie that follows an emotionally sore private investigator who mistakenly stumbles on a case of organ harvesting.

The movie starts off with action and then kind of dwindles into a slow pace. However, the slow pace doesn’t last as long as it did in Shirley’s previous work “Checkmate” in which the slow pace seemed to drag throughout the entire movie. In this movie, the slow pace only lasts a while before the real drama starts.

Following the storyline, it’s nothing uber captivating but even at that you still acknowledge the work that was put in. Following the last crime movie we saw, which was “Murder at Prime Suites”, Potomanto is arguably a capable second. I will admit that the movie is not for everyone because even though it seems well worked out and has enough substance to hold you, it’s not exactly a movie that will be pulled out to watch again and again.

Not much can be said about the movie without acknowledging the skill of Adjetey Anang. Anang has this innate ability to make every situation seem like it’s his true life story. Watching him you forget that this is an actor and immediately equate him as an actor with the character he is trying to play.

The movie had a solid backbone of strong performances who were able to hold up the few otherwise shaky performances. Olu Jacobs was at his best as Bankole. It was definitely a breath of fresh air to see him in a different kind of role. Even though his role as Bankole is still essentially in the same category as his usual royal-villain type, there appears to be more substance to this character.

Yvonne Okoro, although present in this movie, was not a significant enough pillar that her performance could make or break the movie however in the scenes that she was present in her performance was amazing. Marie Humbert as Bankole’s fiance did have a few scenes that were a bit questionable but for the most part she held her own through and through. And kudos to Ms. Frimpong because it takes a great movie maker to bring out the best in an actor as she did with Christabel Ekeh. This is definitely one of Ekeh’s better performances till date.

Potomanto is an interesting enough crime thriller, slow paced at many points and definitely not for everyone but a nice attempt from those involved. Adams Apples stuck in our memories because it was enervating, Potomanto not so much. There is not much memorable about this movie but I will admit that the cliffhanger at the end was a nice touch.

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Potomanto was just a terrible film from Shirley Frimpong Manso. Waste of money. The plot was not well thought out even though thy claimed to have spent a year on writing the script. the film was not intense as it should be because of many lapses in the story line. the most ridiculous part for me was the girl (humbert), taking photos of (olu) with her cell phone camera at his ice cream shop. that was so stupid. what was she taking pictures off? you just left the man at home, you been sleeping with him and living with him and yet you are stlll shadwing him?
also, why did they bring the kidney to his office? simply to later find blood in the glass. makes no sense at all. very disappointing after all the hype. suspecting someone of organ trafficking is not enough reason to live with him. why not get a job in his ice cream shop?
and the whole potomanto thing. I didn’t get it. what was the point? to be honest, the film was stupid. I don’t even know why they were bragging about fight scenes. it’s not fight scenes we need but good story.
this is how I would have expected the story to go. the interpol girl character is not necessary. it is only necessary as his girlfriend. Olu hires the photographer to take follow his wife. Adjeteys is doing the following along with hanging out at the football field and then he also begins to follow the story of the abandoned bodies which is ex girlfriend (okoro) is also working on. it is not until his sex partner, christable’s characters brother goes missing does he delve in deeply and then realizes that he is actually shadowing Bankole. that angle would have been more interesting.
Shirley seems to make movies only to make fame and money. she is not making strong films. i don’t think I’ll be watching anymore of her works.

Let me just say that I appreciated the effort that what put forth to make this movie, as it was indeed an in depth look at a problem that is rampant in Africa and the rest of the world (watch Chiwetal Ejiofor in “Dirty Pretty Things” – excellent movie). However, I did not think that this movie needed to be 2 hours and 15 minutes. It just did not. It took 32 minutes and 8 seconds before the real culprits – the other two main characters played by Olu and Marie are even brought into the story, after Adane’s world (or a glimpse of it) is presented to the viewers. Yes, there are times when the story is slow moving, and you really have to watch it for a while to understand why some actions by the characters in the beginning were done in the first place. I felt that there were some elements of the film that needed either clarification, or did not need to be focused on. I did not see the need for coach Jareath’s girlfriend to have as much presence as she did. There were some other questions one might have regarding various elements of the film, which I won’t go into here, but I think some loose ends could have been tied together. Overall, I think the acting was well done, except at times I think Marie Humbert’s character was overdone in some places. Its funny to me that the cast is basically “Adams Apples Chapter 2”, minus Olu Jacobs, with Marie (Susan Humbert) and and Shina (Ani Iyoho – love him:)) once again involved in the undercover crime world. All in all, as with all Sparrow Production projects, the production from start to finish was excellent. Again, I think the film could have been re-worked just a bit more.

Quality pics, average dialogue, mediocre acting, nice african music…all doing individual works in carrying the storyline from A to Z. Reason why you might not want to recommend it. Sometimes lighting is insulting.